Chapter 17 – Flirting
Tyana hugged Jeff long and hard the second the bag containing her dress had been handed to her. He held her other bags in his hands, being the gentleman as always by insisting to carry them, and tried his best to hug her back, laughing a little.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you" she gushed, squeezing him tightly. The woman behind the till laughed at them with a warm smile. "I owe you something, anything you want, I'll do, I promise" she continued to gush, finally letting him go. Jeff resisted the urge to ask her to hug him one more time, loving how good it felt to have her pressed against him.
"You don't owe me anything. Now come on, let's go skate" They headed off in search of the nearest skating rink. When they found it, paid and got the ice skates they sat down to put them on. With that accomplished Jeff got up to head towards the rink but found Tyana wasn't following, and instead was sitting still on the bench, looking worried. He laughed, realizing what was going on.
"You've never ice skated before have you?"
She shook her head vigorously, "Never. I bet you I fall flat on my ass"
Jeff laughed and wobbled back over to her, his hands outstretched, "I'll teach you, it's not hard. Just stay close" she most certainly didn't have a problem with that. Tyana took both of his hands and stood up uncertainly. They toddled onto the ice together and then Jeff helped her get started, gripping her hand almost as tightly as she was gripping his hand back. Tyana, being such a quick learner, got a hold of it almost immediately. But she had Jeff's hand. She pretended she still needed help and threw in a wobble here and there, just to make it believable. Only she wobbled a bit too dramatically at one point and genuinely fell flat on her backside. She pouted,
"I told you I'd fall"
Jeff just laughed at her then pulled her up, "Well, just, be more careful" when she was standing he continued, "Did you hurt yourself?" She was pouting still. It only made him chuckle more.
"You mean asides from my pride? No, only my butt" She made a point of rubbing her backside. Jeff restrained himself from rubbing it for her. Finally she grinned, bored of pretending she was hopeless, and skated away from him backwards, throwing in a few twirls and such just for good measure as she whirled around the rink. She worked around it anti-clockwise then ended up back at Jeff's side, linking his arm with hers before pulling him off to skate with her. He looked at her with suspicious eyes,
"I thought you couldn't skate"
"I couldn't; I'm a very fast learner"
He looked unconvinced, "No body can do that after a minute on ice"
"I'm not just any body" she said with a grin before she let go of his arm and skated off, throwing a smile and a wink over her shoulder. He stared after her, agreeing totally. Then he skated off after her and the day continued, full of laughs and smiles.
When they were done at the rink they realized they hadn't yet had any lunch even though the evening was vast approaching. They grabbed a hot dog each and then wandered down the streets, struggling to eat while carrying all their shopping.
"So when's your birthday then?" Jeff asked.
"24 in a few weeks. You?" she already knew his birthday; she just didn't want him to know that.
"25 in a couple months" she nodded, took another bite of her hot dog and continued to walk. They walked along talking even long after they had finished eating. When the sky darkened they decided it was either time to go bowling or head back to the hotel. Not wanting their day together to end just yet they opted for bowling, even though Tyana claimed she didn't know how to do that either. Jeff doubted it though; if the ice skating incident was anything to go by she could bowl just fine. But hey, if he had to get up close to show her how to throw the ball right then he'd just have to cope. He was suddenly very much looking forward to bowling. They grabbed a cab to the nearest alley, once again paid, then got their shoes, pulled them on and headed down to their lane. They noticed that any other lanes that were in use had a number greater than two playing on them; they shrugged it off, it wasn't relevant. Jeff explained that the aim was to knock down as many pins as you could. Simple. Tyana nodded and told him he best go first so she could study how it was done correctly. He got a strike. Tyana clapped.
"Very nicely done. Is it my go now?"
He nodded, "Sure is. Ok, get the ball that feels best" Tyana grabbed a nice heavy one. Jeff deiced he'd let her try it out—it wasn't like it would hurt if it was too heavy for her. She was holding it as if it was a feather. Jeff smiled, walked up behind her and told her how to hold the ball. It was obvious to them both that Tyana was holding it wrong on purpose but neither held a complaint against it. Jeff pressed himself up against her back, molding her into the correct position, then reluctantly stepped away as she threw the ball. Strike.
"You sure you've never done this before?" he gave her a playfully suspicious glance.
"Positive"
"And why should I believe you?" She bent over, picked up his ball, and handed it to him with a dazzling smile, "Because it's the truth" Jeff dripped into a puddle of mush when she beamed at him like that. The game progressed. Tyana won, bruising Jeff's pride a little, but they just laughed it off and decided maybe it was time they headed back to the hotel. They traded shoes back in, got their bags and grabbed a cab. They were standing outside of Tyana's door half an hour later.
"Thanks for coming with me today; I would have gone crazy if I had been stuck in my room for yet another day"
Tyana smiled, "It was my pleasure, I had a lot of fun." She shook her head to try and get some stray hairs out of her eyes, being that her hands were so full of bags that she couldn't successfully reach her eyes to do so.
Jeff laughed; "Here let me get that" transferred his few bags into one hand then reached out and brushed her hair from her eyes.
"Thank you"
"No problem. Ok, so I guess I'll see you around?"
Tyana nodded, not wanting him to go just yet, "Yeah. If you decide that you want to get out of that room of yours then you know where to find me"
Jeff smiled at the offer, "I'll keep that in mind"
"Good. Thank you for a wonderful day. And, for the dress" she held up the hand which held, amongst others, the bag in which the item was folded neatly.
"Well don't go putting it away too soon, you owe me a dinner remember?"
"Don't need to tell me twice" The unruly strands of turquoise fell back in front of her eyes, making them giggle. Tyana struggled to reach up to brush them away the same second Jeff moved to do so, causing their hands to collide. Jeff smiled at her as he brushed away the locks, but found Tyana enclosed his hand in hers before he could move it away. She stared at him, the air around them shifting hugely. Jeff gazed back at her, noting the way in which she was looking at him. He smiled before she leant in and gently kissed his cheek. Shock waves snapped down his spine. He almost didn't hear her whisper "Goodnight"
Tyana smiled when she pulled back. Jeff managed to murmur a dizzy "Night" before she turned, struggled with the door behind her because she had so many bags and then fluttered inside with the door closing behind her in a second. Jeff smiled ruefully. He stared at her door for a second then wandered down the hall to his room and slipped inside. He threw his bags down on the floor randomly and moved towards his bed. He blacked out before he reached it.
Unaware of her effect on him, Tyana set her bags down neatly inside the door and bit her lip, overjoyed, as she fell backwards onto the bed. She looked over the room from her upside down position and saw Shadow standing grimly with a gun in her hands, another on the dresser beside her. Tyana quickly sat up and looked at her friend with a grave face.
Shadow frowned, "We got a mission to do, get ready"
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*A/N* Sorry updates have been all over the shop, I just started college you see so I've really got to organize time around it. Anyway, d'ya like the new ff.net? I love it, but maybe that's just me. Hehe. Shadow, thanks for updating hun. Oh crap, I forgot about making their way again, *runs off to get her college schedule* ok, I should be back early this afternoon, I'll read it then. :o)
